Läksin metsähän kesoilla

SKVR IV1 261·Hietamäki·1848·Collector: Europaeus, D. E. D.

In the SKVR edition: [Nuolij. - Liissilä]. D. E. D. Europaeus. III 2. 157. 1848.

SKVR textEnglish

1Läksin metsähän kesoillaI went to the forest in summer meadows

- - -

3Tuomen tullessa kukalle,When the bird cherry came to bloom,

4Lehen kannan kasvaessa:As the leaf's stem grew:

5Tuonne mie kana kauhiaksiThere I, a hen, became terrified,

6Sekä peityin pieni lintu.And hid, a small bird.

7Kenen etso, kennen kaiho,Whom do I seek, whose longing,

8Kenen ensisti ikävä?Whose absence is felt first?

9Emon etso, emon kaiho,Mother's seeking, mother's longing,

10Emon ensisti ikävä,Mother's absence felt first,

11Emo etsi neitoansa,Mother sought her maiden,

12Etsi sutena suuret metsät,Searched the great forests as a wolf,

13Karhuna kamalat korvet,As a bear, the dreaded backwoods,

14Penikkana pellon reunat,As a pup, the field edges,

15Itikkana hienot heinät.As a gadfly, the fine grasses.

16Neito pilvestä pimahti,The maiden darted from the cloud,

17Hattarassa huuteleepi.In the haze, she calls out.

18Emo maassa mairotteli:Mother lamented on the ground:

19Laskii maahan, marjueni!Let [her] down to earth, my berry!

English translations by DeepSeek R1, provided by Lidia Pivovarova (University of Helsinki). AI-generated translations may contain inaccuracies.

The text is that of the SKVR digital edition of the Finnish Literature Society (SKS), with these changes:

The editors’ signs inside the verses ([ ], ⌈ ⌉, *, [!], [?]) are left out, as in the poem reader; the letters they enclose are kept.
The edition’s line numbers are replaced by a number on every verse, counted as in the poem reader.

Source

Text: SKVR (Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot), the digital edition of the Finnish Literature Society (SKS), licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Added by RunoVerse: the English translations, the song types, the verse numbers and the links.